Believing the rapture will happen at all is just as absurd as believing it will happen on a particular date.

So? if it weren't for logical fallacies, everyone would spend their time talking about stuff that makes them happy instead of divided.

What kind of world would that be? One of no war, no anger, more cooperation? Bah!

I read the bible and became atheist.

I read about the atheists and don't think they believe in anything.

That's where most believers fail.

Help me out here. What are you attempting to say? Am I wrong in believing Atheists don't believe in anything? We've lumped the Christian believers into one body in this discussion so please be clear what the Atheists believe.

It's a big spectrum in the Christian realm and saying they are all the same is wrong. Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, JW, Mormon, Evangelical, etc aren't identical, some even believing that others aren't even Christian. We've managed to throw them all in the same bucket in this thread and you might as well be mixing oil and water in some cases.

Invisible force which we may call "God" exists! However trick is - you need to find it for yourself on your own looking in yourself without waiting others to proove it for you. Clues are all over your life - backtrack your life - notice every event, person, item, music lyrics, etc. and then see how it all is connected. Sorry but your life doesn't contain random coinsidences if you will look at it as a whole picture - your life is like puzzle guided by some force just waiting for you to solve it. It is your choice if you will accept it or deny but if you will deny it you will feel sorry you did it later..TV also contains clues because they treat people as dumb. There is reason why there is saying "Best place to hide stuff is in front of your eyes!"..changes are coming not end of world - you just need to make choice if you want stay here or move forward. Ancient civilisations were not dumb at all when they mentioned event in this century.

Exactly! Will you stay with the religion your parents taught you to be the right one (because their parents have done the same) or will you move forward and make your own decisions (based on facts and reason, not tradition) and may be choose a different religion or no religion at all?

... and if you remember "problem of evil", it will be quite obvious that this force either doesn't care about you (neutral) or is your enemy (malevolent). IMO, people should use their own brains instead of expecting some kind of supernatural aid.

How can you so easily label an arcane, overarching cosmic force? Especially when we can't even understand how the human brain works!

It is impossible to definitely determine or prove the existence of god(s) or the lack thereof with humanity's current knowledge and understanding, much less give it (assuming it's there) such an utterly simple label. Can you even label humanity as malevolent, benevolent or neutral? What is advancing technology and bettering the lives of humans if in the process we destroy the environment and animals? Are people who are evil part of a benevolent society? Can we even define evil or good?

Easy. Although using "Good" and "Evil" is definitely a bad idea, everything can be labeled as "friendly", "neutral" or "hostile" towards something else. Problem of evil implies god (if exists) is either neutral or hostile towards humans.

You'll have to prove that, since it sounds like another belief that isn't based on anything except jumping to conclusions.

As far as I know, it may or may not be possible to prove/disprove existence of god, but I definitely haven't ever encountered such proof and haven't ever heard about it. Maybe it exists. Maybe it doesn't.

Yes, I can. It is neutral.

Benevolent towards whom?

It is possible to define "evil" or "good", and spend next billion of years arguing about whose definition is right, so such concepts are mostly useless.
But you can simplify things a lot by using "friendly", "hostile" or "neutral" in conjunction with object of that attitude. If a wild bear wants to rip your head off, is this because this bear is "evil"? Who knows. But the fact is that this particular animal is hostile towards you right now, and you should act accordingly. Problem of evil indicates that if god exists, it is either uncaring or hostile towards humanity and has been this way as long as humans existed.

What's up with that statement?
Let's say I don't even know what a Christian is and what is Christianity all about.
Can talk general?

We do. "Good" and "evil" are moral precepts, and animals are amoral. Therefore the bear is most definitely NOT evil. Hostile, yes, but not evil.

Hence the dog gets one bite, and the bear one kill, without punishment. On the second bite we kill the dog, not as punishment of the dog, but as punishment of its owner, or simply defense of humans. Likewise the bear is not killed as punishment, but simply to defend humans.

The human, however, is killed for punishment. His self-awareness inflicts the punishment. We also kill him to protect humans, but there is a punishment motive lacking in our killing animals.

I disagree, but this direction of discussion is not interesting.

You concentrate on "killing" part way too much, it is unhealthy. Also you don't know how to handle dogs. Or wild animals.

And you forgot that capital punishment isn't used everywhere. If your state has death sentence, it doesn't mean the rest of the world uses it.

What was your point anyway?

That we know for a fact that animals are not evil. Hostile, maybe, but not evil. If we find animals that are self-aware and capable of higher thinking, then I'll reconsider. But bears? No.

Animals, in short, have no need for gods. Gods are strickly a human need.